Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  Alleluia!  He is Risen!  Buona Pasqua!

As I sit here at my computer putting the last few touches on the preparations for the Easter Vigil, I look out my window, into my courtyard, and see what Easter is truly all about.  It is a grey, dreary, foggy day.  The rain has stopped, the birds are chirpping, and my garden is coming to life after a LONG winter! 

Daffodils are in full bloom.  Hyacinth are almost done.  Violets and primrose are sporting their wonderful colors. Tulips - five of them - are preparing to unfurl.  Lillies and pampras grass push their greens skyward.  Rose bushes have sprouted leaves.  Everywhere, there is new life, even amid the gloomy weather conditions of the day.

Just two days ago, on Holy Thursday, I gathered with Archbishop Mansell and 30 other priests for our annual Celebration of Priesthood Luncheon.  There were 1,010 years of priesthood there!

Then I returned to celebrate the Mass of the Last Supper.  One of the most moving parts, for me, is the Washing of Feet ceremony.  It reminds me why I have become a priest in the first place - to serve the people of God, and to continue the work Jesus began over 2,000 years ago.  Two of the people actually thanked me after I washed their feet; that kind of startled me, because I do not do what I do to be thanked, but because this is what God has called me to do.  And yet, it WAS nice to be thanked.

Yesterday, I presided at the Good Friday services, reading the Passion, unveiling the Cross, and leading in the veneration of the Cross.  What an awesome God we have - one who was willing to die for me, and for every person, of all time!  How can I ever repay Him?  The best I can do is try to live that same love every day.

And now, the culmination of all of this - the Easter Vigil!  It is my privilege to baptize three people into our church this evening, and to welcome two others, already baptized in different faiths, into our church.  I also get to confer the sacrament of confirmation, something usually reserved for the bishop.  But because it is done in the context of the Easter Vigil, I have permission to confirm this evening - a special time for me as well as for the five becoming Catholic!  It will be a long ceremony, but one that is so moving and filled with such dramatic imagery.

The church will be in total darkness as we begin, and the light of the new Easter candle will illumine the entire church!  It doesn't get any better than that - to SEE how the light of Christ enlightens us all!

By tomorrow afternoon, I will be totally drained, but it will be a good tired, for knowing it is Easter makes all the difference in the world! 

Happy Easter!